SGPC wants largest blood donation camp in Guinness Book

Claiming to have held the largest blood donation camp in the world at Anandpur Sahib on March 10,the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee now wants the feat listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Claiming to have held the largest blood donation camp in the world at Anandpur Sahib on March 10,the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) now wants the feat listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.

All the records and video clips relating to the camp are being compiled in a dossier to be submitted before the functionaries of the Guinness Book.

As per the record,a total of 18,207 units of blood were donated during this camp. We are submitting all records to Guinness Book as desired by them, said Jaswinder Singh Advocate,SGPC member and the brain behind the camp.

The Dera Sacha Sauda had set the last record of 13,938 units during a blood donation camp,held at Bapuji village,Sriganganagar,in October 2004.

Advocate,who also heads the socio-religious body,Akal Purakh Ki Fauj,said the camp was organised under the aegis of the Akal Takht and SGPC and Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh was the first to donate blood. He was followed by Giani Tarlochan Singh,Jathedar,Takht Kesgarh Sahib; Damdami Taksal chief Baba Harnam Singh Dhumma; former Cabinet minister Bikram Singh Majithia and Karanbir Singh Kang of the Youth Akali Dal.

Advocate said the camp was organised to dispel misgivings about blood donation and encourage people to save lives by donating blood. More than 1,500 donors from Maharashtra and 250 donors from Kolkata donated blood in the camp,which also received over 20 buses of donors from Jammu,15 buses from Bathinda,20 from Ludhiana,35 from Dehradun and 70 buses from Amritsar,besides a large number of local donors,who participated in the camp.

More than 100 doctors and 1,000 para-medical staff from PGI,Chandigarh; PGI Rohtak; AIIMS,Delhi,and Rajasthan participated in the camp,held on an area of two lakh square feet, said Advocate. He maintained that as per the directions of the Guinness Book of World Records,three cameras had been set up for recording the head count and for keeping a record of the visitors and documentation. Stickers were also issued to the visitors to keep count of the volunteers donating blood, he said.